Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Was there really a flying octopus when you took those kids on that boat?

Where is Applesett?

Is it true that a kid hit himself on the head with an encyclopedia to make a sound effect?

Who is the hippy teacher really based on?

When is your next book published.

How can Dracula be in your next memoir (or, now to mention it, an Egyptian mummy or an exploding pig)?

Want to know the answers to these questions? Of course you do! Well come along to this:

On Wednesday 6th December at 7pm I shall be at York Central Library (or York Explore or whatever they call it now) for 'An Evening with Andy Seed' no less. I'll be sharing some of the funny experiences I've had as a primary school teacher and talking about my recent book, ALL TEACHERS GREAT AND SMALL, and sharing the amazing story of how it came to be published after a 10 year journey with the help of daytime TV...

I'll also be giving one or two glimpses ahead at the next book in the series, to be called All Teachers Wise and Wonderful, and talking about what it's like to write memoirs: the pitfalls and the fun. There'll be a Q&A session at the end of the talk so you can ask me all those awkward questions you have about publishing or try and wheedle out of me who the character Malcolm is really based on...

The tickets cost £5.50 and include a glass of wine or juice and there'll also be an opportunity to buy a signed copy of 'ATGAS': what better Christmas present can there be? The event is at York Explore, Museum Street and further details can be found at:http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/Libraries/whatson/andy_seed/

Friday, 11 November 2011

I visited the admirable Holy Trinity C of E Junior School in Ripon yesterday to present a day of performance poetry. What a lot of fun we had, learning 'Cheeky Pete', making sound effects, doing actions, calling out rhymes and more. I especially enjoyed watching the Y5 and Y6 classes performing some of my own poems from Razzle Dazzle - the star was Albertus but everyone who stood up did well. I just wish we'd had time to do more!

The visit showed that children love poetry and are brilliant at learning rhymes, picking up rhythms and, well, just enjoying the fun that we can have playing with language. It was also great to see how many of the children are enthusiastic readers too - well done, kids!

There was a very funny moment when I was talking about my book The Real Me, which is aimed at girls and was written under the pseudonym Amy Simon. I often tell the curious tale of how I came to write a book for girls (I certainly didn't intend to!) and how the invented name Amy Simon came about. Children and teachers always find it fascinating, not least as some of them have no idea that many books don't have the real name of the author on the cover. I asked the question, 'Is there a way to tell that I really wrote this book?' and someone came up with the hilarious answer, 'There's a photo of you inside the cover.' On reflection, I think that it would be fairly shocking for readers of Amy Simon to turn the page and find a bearded man...

Anyway, thanks to Mrs Green for organising the day and I hope that the teachers enjoy the copy of All Teachers Great and Small I donated to their staffroom library.